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HISTORY OF THE FILIPINO REVOLT 



SPEECH 



HON. RICHARD R PETTIGREW 



OF SOUTH DAKOTA, 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, 



Wednesday, January 31, 1900. 



W A SHINGTON. 

1900. 






^^ "K^ 



H 



HOK EICHARD F. PETTIGEEW, 

Wednesday, January 31, 1900. 



HISTORY OF FILIPINO REVOLT. 

Mr. PETTIGREW. I submit tlie resolution which I send to 
the desk. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The resolution will be read. 

The Secretary proceeded to read the resolution, and read as 
follows: 

Resolved, That the Authentic Review of the Philippine Revolution, •which 
is as follows 

Mr. LODGE. Mr. President, I should like to ask the Senator 
from South Dakota if that is the article or the pamphlet which he 
asked to have printed yesterday? 

Mr. PETTIGREW. I suppose the reading of the resolution 
will develop what the Senator wishes to ascertain. 

Mr. LuDGE. Mr. President, there is a motion now pending to 
print that article, which I take to be the same, and before it makes 
a part of the Record — before it is printed as a public document — 
I wish to enter my protest against its being printed as a part of 
the Record and becoming a document of the United States in 
any f orA, 

1 have never made any protest against printing that has been 
ordered here, of all sorts of articles and speeches on all kinds of 
subjects, although I think that it is a privilege which is gi'eatly 
abused; but in this case I do desire to enter a protest, and the 
reason why I do so is because, in this publication or pamphlet, a 
number of statements are attributed to Admiral Dewey which I 
have his authority to say are absolutely false. 

Mr. President, that the Anti- Imperialist League and its one 
newspaper organ should print and circulate anything of scnj sort 
without regard to its character is to be expected. It is their 
trade, and I have nothing to say against it. They are such care- 
ful guardians of other people's virtue that thej^ can do things 
which persons of less virtue than themselves would shrink from 
'N^ " */^ performing. But I do think that for the United States to send 

out under its imprint a series of statements attributing remarks 
and conversation to the Admiral of its Navy which he states to be 
absolutely false is something in which the Senate should not 
engage. 

1 will read the statement of Admiral Dewey, in a note I received 
from him this morning: 

Dear Senator. Lodge: The statement of Emilio Aguinaldo, as recently 
published in the Springfield Republican, so far as it relates to me, is a tissue f 
of falsehoods. '' 

if if^ * it * Hf * 

Sincerely, yours, 

GEORGE DEWEY. 
2 .4028 






Now, I do not think that on that statement we ought in any 
way to put a pamphlet containing that tissue of falsehoods into 
the Record or print it as a public document. It does not seem 
to me that it is the proper thing to do. The document would go 
out and be circulated under a frank, free of cost; no denial could 
go with it of those lies which have been denounced by the Ad- 
miral of the Navy as such, whicb are attributed directly to him 
and which, in the pamphlet I saw, were all printed in italics. 
The pamphlet I read purported to be written by Agu'-naldo, and 
to have been printed, I believe, at Tarlac, in Luzon. 

It seems to me to bear the marks of publication and preparation 
at some place nearer the United States than Luzon or Hongkong. 
But be that as it may, all these emphasized statements of conver- 
sations which, on their face, were reported eighteen months after 
they were supposed to have taken place, are stigmatized by the 
Admiral himself as a "tissue of falsehoods." I do not think it is 
just to him; I do not think it is proper for the United States to 
allow such statements as that to go out under its imprint and in 
its official record, and that is why I enter my protest at this point. 

Mr. ALDRICH. Mr. President, I raise the question of order 
upon the consideration of the resolution. It seems to me that to 
put a resolution in this form is a clear and palpable evasion of 
the Senate rules. As I understand, the Senator from South Da- 
kota undertakes by this method to have inserted in the Record 
a long paper which he asked the Senate yesterday to have printed 
and which he has a resolution before the Senate to have printed. 
That resolution, under the rules, must go to the Committee on 
Printing. The Senator will succeed in this form, if he is allowed, 
to have this paper printed, which a large proportion of Senators 
certainly have made strenuous objections to having printed, and 
he will succeed in having it printed in the Record by what seems 
to me to be a clear evasion of the rules. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair sustains the point 
of order. 

Mr. HAWLEY. That it is out of order? 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. That it is out of order. 

Mr. PETTIGREW. Mr. President, this paper is a translation 
from a Spanish pamphlet written by Aguinaldo and translated in 
Boston. It was furnished to the Springfield Republican, and they 
sent it to their reporter in this city, requesting him to call the 
attention of Admiral Dewey to the allusions to himself in the doc- 
ument. The reporter did so, and Admiral Dewey, after examining 
it, replied through his secretary that he would say nothing; that 
he would adhere to his decision and say nothing upon the subject 
until the commission made its report. 

It now appears that Admiral Dewey has concluded to say some- 
thing upon the subject, and a letter turns up in the hands of the 
Senator from Massachusetts in which he says that the statements 
with regard to himself are a tissue of falsehoods. Now, a state- 
ment of that sort could be made simply if Mr. Dewey and Mr. 
Aguinaldo, in a very immaterial way, almost, misunderstood each 
other, one construction being put upon the language by one, they 
not speaking a common tongue, and another construction by the 
other upon the language used between them. That there was a 
recognition of Aguinaldo and his government by us and by our 
Navy there can be no possible question. Admiral Dewey recog- 
nized the flag of the Philippine republic and the vessels of that 
republic in Manila Bay. 

4038 



4 

Mr. SPOONER. How? 

Mr. PETTIGREW. By saluting the flag and by convoying one 
of tlie vessels of the Filipino republic to Subig Bay and receiving 
the surrender of Spanish garrisons, and then turning the prison- 
ers over to Aguinaldo after their surrender, 

Mr. LODGE. Mr. President, I ask the Senator "s permission at 
that point 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Does the Senator from South 
Dakota yield to the Senator from Massachusetts? 

Mr. PETTIGREW. I will not yield. The Senator can speak 
when I am through. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The debate is proceeding by 
unanimous consent. 

Mr. LODGE. I will read the rest of the letter subsequently. 

Mr. PETTIGREW. Now, what is more, Mr. President, after 
Manila surrendered, while we were negotiating a treaty of peace 
with Spain, Admiral Dewey captured and confiscated these ves- 
sels belonging to Aguinaldo's government and took the flag of 
that republic from off the sea, a direct act of war against our 
allies, who to the number of 30,000 were camped around the town 
of Manila, who had helped capture Manila, who entered Manila 
with our forces and took possession of a large portion of the sub- 
urbs of that city, and who retired after entering Manila with our 
forces from the inner city and the larger part of the city, which 
is outside of the old city of Manila. 

Mr. GALLINGER. Mr. President, I rise to a point of order. 
If this debate is to be engaged in some of the rest of us will want 
a little time, and I think some agreement ought to be made about 
it. I take it the Senator from South Dakota is proceeding out of 
order in discussing the question that has been ruled upon by the 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from South Da- 
kota is preceeding by unanimous consent. 

Mr. GALLINGER. Now, Mr. President, I have no objection 
to his going on if it be understood that it is an open debate; but I 
should be unwilling that the Senator from South Dakota, who has 
occupied the attention of the Senate for hours and hours in 
defense of this distinguished citizen of the Philippines, should be 
permitted to make a lengthy speech and then the rest of us should 
be shut off from answermg. That is the only point I wish to 
make. 

Mr. PETTIGREW. Mr. President, in the face of these facts, 
in the face of the evidence in Document No. 63, sent by the Presi- 
dent of the United States, that our generals at Paris told our com- 
missioners that we were under great obligations to those people, to 
Aguinaldo and his army, for the capture of several thousand 
Spanish prisoners, for driving into the city of Manila and surround- 
ing them with earthworks what was left of the Spanish forces in 
that country, it seems to me that it is pertinent and proper that 
the statement of Aguinaldo with regard to the facts connected 
with this transaction should be laid before the American people. 
If they can not be laid before the American people otherwise, if 
this resolution is not to be adopted, if j'ou will not permit the 
statement to be printed as a document, then we will read it and 
put it in the Record. 

Mr. HAWLEY. I shall object to it as treason and giving aid 
and comfort to the enemies of the United States, which is what 
the Senator has been doing constantly. 

4028 



Mr. PETTIGREW. Mr. President, it is Interesting to listen to 
the excitement of these people 

Mr. HAWLE Y. Who are ' ' these people? " 

Mr. PETTIGREW. The Senator from Connecticut is one of 
them — who are afraid to lay before the American people the facts 
with regard to a transaction in which this Administration is 
■^ong. If telling the truth, if disclosing what has occurred, is 
treason, then you can make the most of it. We will tell the truth. 
We will expose the things which have been done by this Adminis- 
tration, no matter what may be the result. The threat of treason, 
the talk about encouraging the enemy will not deter us from lay- 
ing before the American people these glaring facts. If in strug- 
gling to prevent the destruction of this Republic, if upholding th« 
Declaration of Independence, if resisting the treason of the Presi- 
dent in violating the Constitution, which he has sworn to support, 
is treason, I am guilty; try me for treason. 

Why, Mr. President, when this session opened a simple resolu- 
tion asking for information was tabled by the majority in this 
body, and the purpose, evidently planned, was that nothing should 
be laid before the people of the United States. The policy of 
suppression in that way became too irksome, and, finally, the ef- 
fort now is made to refer such resolutions to a committee, and 
thus smother investigation in that way. 

Is this a Republic? Do the people rule? Are they no longer 
entitled to a knowledge of the history which we have made? Mr. 
President, locked up in the secrets of the State Department are 
the reports of our' consuls in Cuba previous to the outbreak of the 
Spanish war. They have never been laid before this body; they 
have never been made public to the American people. The same 
course has been pursued through all this wretched business. It 
accords well with the idea that we shall establish in the place and 
upon the ruins of the Republic an empire, a government ruled 
without the knowledge or consent of the people. 

If protesting against this is treason , if denouncing this thing is 
treason, then I am guilty, let the consequences be what they may. 

Mr. President 

Mr. CHANDLER. I object to further debate. 

Mr. PETTIGREW. I do not care to discuss the question 
further this morning. 

Mr. LODGE. Mr. President, it seems to me rather harsh that, 
after the charges which have been made here under unanimous 
consent, those of us who take the opposite view should be sud- 
denly cut off from all reply. There should surely be some fair- 
ness in such a matter. It has been charged here 

Mr. COCKRELL. We have not objected on this side. 

Mr. JONES of Arkansas. I hope the Senator from New Hamp- 
shire will withdraw his objection. 

Mr. CHANDLER. I withdraw my objection. 

The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Massachu- 
setts [Mr. Lodge] is recognized. 

Mr.'LODGE. Mr. President, my objection to this pamphlet is 
not that it contains the truth, but that it is a mass of falsehoods. 
I want all the truth published, and I for one resent this con- 
tinual heaping of slanders upon the men charged with our De- 
partments and with our executive affairs, that they are holding 
back information from the American people. It is their one desire 
to lay everything before the American people; and when that mass 
of papers we have called for is put upon that desk and printed, the 
4038 



6 

persons who will regret their appearance are not those who are 
supporting the Administration and its policy, but those who have 
slandered it here and elsewhere. 

Mr. President, it has been stated here in so many words this 
morning that Admiral Dewey saluted the Filipino flag, that he 
recognized the independence of the Filipinos. These assertions 
are added to the charges in that lying pamphlet, translated and 
printed in Springfield, although the copy 1 saw purported to come 
from Luzon. I wish now and on this account to read the whole 
of Admiral Dewey's letter, I had no desire to bring Admiral 
Dewey into this any more than was absolutely necessary. I 
thought the few sentences that I had read were enough to show to 
the Senate, without any distinction of party or of difference of opin- 
ion on this case, that it was neither becoming nor proper to give 
the imprint of the United States to such material as this. Let us 
circulate the truth by all means, but do not let us circulate under 
the imprint of the United States branded slanders, which are at- 
tributed—whether rightly or wrongly I know not — to the author- 
ship of a man who has been fighting the United States, or at least 
employing others to do so. I will read the whole letter: 

The statement of EmiHo Aguinaldo recently pulDlishecT in the Springfield 
Republican as far as it relates to me is a tissue of falsehood. I never prom- 
ised him, directly or indirectly, independence for the Filipinos. I never 
treated him as an ally, except so far as to make use of him and his natives to 
assist me in my operations against the Spaniards. He never uttered the 
word "independence" in any conversation with me or my ofBcers. The 
statement that I received him with military honors or saluted the Filipino 
flag is absolutely false. 

Sincerely, yours, GEORGE DEWEY. 

Mr. President, we all know that the insurgent troops were used 
in the operations about Manila. This charge about saluting the 
Filipino flag and receiving Aguinaldo with militar}' honors has 
been repeated and reiterated here day after day before the Depart- 
ments have had time to send in the official facts: and now, in the 
presence of that denial from the most distinguishednaval officer and 
Admiral of the United States, we are asked to send out, with the 
imprint of the United States, the slanders and the falsehoods con- 
tained in that pamphlet. I do not know what others may think, 
but as for the word of that pamphlet against the word of George 
Dewey, I take the word of George Dewey, as the people of the 
United States will take it, as final; and I do not think that the 
Senate of the United States ought to lend itself to any such busi- 
ness as this. 

Mr. SPOONER. Mr. President, no one, I think, in the Senate 
or in the country would countenance any attempt anywhere to 
diminish the exercise of what is precious to all of us — liberty of 
speech; but I believe the people of the United States — and the 
Senator from South Dakota [Mr. Pettigrew] asks whether they 
rule or not — must, in the circumstances of to-day, grow weary 
some time, if they have not already grown weary of the daily 
trial in the Senate Chamber, upon motions of inquiry, of the suit 
of Aguinaldo against the United States, 

There ought to be a line drawn somewhere, Mr. President, in 
this matter. It may not perhaps be drawn in debate, but it may 
be drawn as to the placing upon the permanent records of this 
Senate of such communications as the Senator from South Dakota 
seeks by this rather evasive means to place uiDon them. 

When before has it ever been proposed — and I do not intend to 
discuss the question as to what we shall do or what we ought to 

4038 



do in the Philippines, the qnestion which the Senator from South 
Dakota daily seeks to discuss here — but when before has it been 
proposed in the Senate to place upon the records of this body a justi- 
fication, or attempted jxistification, of his cause by a man in arms 
against the flag and against the Government of the United States? 
It is not simply a question whether the statements contained in that 
paper are true or false. So far as the American people are con- 
cerned, they will believe the statement of Admiral Dewey; and 
/ when the Senator fi'om South Dakota asserts as a fact that Ad- 
miral Dewey saluted the flag of the so-called Philippine republic 
and Admiral Dewey says he did not, there will be no longer in the 
public mind, I think, if there ever has been, any question about it. 

But here is a proposition to place upon the Record, coupled 
with a proposition yesterday to circulate it as a document printed 
by the Senate, a statement by a man in arms against our flag, 
spending his days and his nights in concerting measures by which 
he can kill the soldiers who rally around that flag — a statement 
intended to show that his cause is a just one and that our cause 
is not a just one. 

Mr. President, my objection to that is not that it sends the truth 
over the country; it is the effect it will have upon Aguinaldo and 
his forces, for it will be taken to be an adoption by the Senate of 
the United States of his statement as a true statement, worthy 
under the public imprint to be sent throughout the country. Does 
it need any argument to show that the effect of such action by the 
Senate can not be otherwise than detrimental over there? Can it 
be otherwise than a direct encouragement to those in what I call 
insurrection against this Government and against our flag? What- 
ever the people may say after a while about this question when the 
war is ended, I think they stand by the Army of the United States, 
Mr. President, and that they will have no sympathy with any 
utterance, here or elsewhere, which endangers the life of one man 
wearing the uniform of the Federal Army and fighting 7,000 miles 
away under orders and under the flag. 

Mr. President, there has just reached San Francisco an Ameri- 
can ship bearing to his last rest the body of General Lawton, 
killed on the firing line under our flag in the Philippines— as chiv- 
alrous a soldier as ever led a column into battle. He is dead. His 
broken-hearted widow and children are bringing him back to his 
own land and to a people who love him and admire him, not only 
for his long life of splendid military service, but for his gallantry 
and fidelity over there in the struggle against Aguinaldo and to 
carry forward our flag and the authority of the United States. 
Dead he is; but, Mr. President, he still speaks; and I want to read 
here on this occasion his opinion as to the effect of such proposi- 
tions as this and some of the debate we listen to here upon the 
safety of the Federal Army: 

I would to God that the whole truth of this whole Philippine situation 
could be known by every one in America as I know it. If the so-called anti- 
imperialists could honestly ascertain the truth on the ground and not in dis- 
tant America, they, who I believe to be honest men misinformed, would be 
convinced of the error of their statements and conclusions and of the unfor- 
tunate effect of their publication here — 

That is the point of his letter — 

If lam shot by a Filipino bullet^ it might as well come from one of my own 
men, because I know from observation, confirmed by captured prisoners, that 
/ the continuance of fighting is chiefly due to reports that are sent out here from 
^ America. 

Mr. President, the debate will go on; these resolutions of in- 

4038 



• 8 

quiry and propositions like this will go on without doubt, but I 
venture to hope that there may be a truce — I ask only for a short 
one — until General Lawton's body may be brought from San 
Francisco and laid away in the spot which is to be his last home 
on earth. 

Mr. PETTIGREW. Mr. President, the ship which brought 
General Lawton's body to this country broiight also the body of 
one of my dearest friends, the adjutant of the First South Dakota 
Regiment, killed after the treaty of peace was signed, killed in a 
service in which he did not enlist, killed in a service which he be- 
lieved was wrong. Yet, brave boy that he was, he led his forces 
to victory many a time and finally fell in that distant land. 

Mr. President, I want a truce. I wanted it before my friend 
was killed. I wanted a truce before the sixty South Dakota boys 
werekilled, Arousedbya just indignation and agrandpatriotlsm 
and a splendid enthusiasm, they enrolled their names to drive 
from this continent the despotic power of Spain. But they are 
gone, drafted into an unwilling service and killed in an unwilling 
service, after they had a right to go home — after their term of 
enlistment had expired. With unparalleled bravery and courage 
they obeyed the commands of their President and went to their 
death. 

The day after fighting began at Manila, Aguinaldo asked for a 
truce. He said, "Fix the limits of a zone which we shall occupy, 
and let us try, without bloodshed, to settle this difficulty;" and 
the answer was, "Fighting having once begun, it must go on to 
the grim end." But if the request had been granted, if the truce 
had been given. General Lawton would be living to-day and the 
South Dakota boys would be in the bosoms of their families in- 
stead of moldering in the soil of Luzon. Day by day, constantly 
from that time to this, the Filipinos fighting for freedom have 
sent their envoys asking for peace, begging a" truce. The Presi- 
dent at Fargo says Aguinaldo offered peace for independence. 
Peace for independence! 

He said he had another price for peace a short time ago, but 
the United States never gave gold for peace. Aguinaldo did not 
ask gold for peace. He asked for that boon, dearer than life, 
which made our forefathers found this Government and which 
has brought into being every republic throughoiit the world. 
Fight until they surrender! If that rule had been applied, the 
war of the Revolution would still be going on. No self-respecting 
people would lay down their arms at such a challenge. 

That the Filipinos have the capacity of self-government is dem- 
onstrated by that fact. All we have to do to stop bloodshed in 
the Philippines is to say to those people they shall have that price- 
less boon which is so dear to us and which they have shown is 
dear enough to them that they are willing to lay down their lives 
for it. Why shall we not do it? Why shall we continue this war 
of aggression? But a few provinces only in those islands have 
been conquered. Our troops occupy less than one-quarter of the 
area, and over the rest Aguinaldo's government still prevails. 
That is the situation to-day. All the provinces of northern Lu- 
zon are untouched, and the peaceful government which Sargent 
and Wilcox describe is still being carried on. Much of the south- 
ern part of Luzon is still unoccupied by our troops. Almost no 
portion of the other islands of the archipelago have been occupied 
by us. We are on the shore and in but a few places ; and this war, 

4028 



in my opinion, will go on and on tor years unless we say to those 
people that which we ought to say and say it at once, " You shall 
have your independence," 

This talk about revolt, about fighting insurgents, it seems to 
me, is absurd. How can we have title without possession? I 
think it is a fair proposition, well sustained in international law, 
that when a country is purchased, possession must come in order 
to give sovereignty. Spain could not give any possession, because 
her power was ousted and another government existed in its 
place. There is no revolt; if we stop fighting, the war will be 
over. 

The other day the Queen of England, in her message to the 
Parliament, made this statement: 

In resisting the invasion of my South African colonies by the South African 
Republic and Orange Free State my people have responded -with devotion 
and enthusiasm to the appeal which I have made to them, and the heroism of 
my soldiers in the field and my sailors and marines who were landed to co- 
operate with them has not fallen short of the noblest traditions of our mili- 
tary history. 

Here, then, is a charge that the Boers have attacked Great 
Britain. The same charge is made against the Filipinos, although 
the facts do not bear it out any more than they do in the case of 
/ the Boers. The excuse, then, is the cry of the flag, the appeal to 
. patriotism, the effortto rally our people to sustain an Administra- 
tion in doing the greatest wrong ever perpetrated by a govern- 
ment in the history of the world. It is the policy Great Britain 
has followed always, and she has become our teacher and our 
director in our affairs. Great Britain in all her conquests for the 
last fifty years first got in where she had no business to be, and 
has placed her armed forces in antagonism to the liberties of other 
people, and then when the flag was fired upon she has rallied her 
people to the defense of the flag. 

She has said, "We can not talk peace. We can not listen tothe 
proposition of right or wrong, or questions whether we had a right 
to be there or not, until the enemy surrenders. " It was so in Ire- 
land from the earliest day. Trouble occurred in Ireland because 
of resistance to oppression and aggression and wrong, and then 
they said, " The strong arm of British power must be used to sup- 
press discontent in Ireland, and when it is suppressed then we will 
try and do right," never doing right when Ireland was pacified by 
power. Outbreaks again occurred, and then the same plea was 
made to the English people; and so it has been around the world, 
-— The South African Chartered Company have killed in South 
Africa in the last twelve years 4,000 men and themselves have lost 
but five or six men, with the same old plea, adding territory after 
territory to their possessions; and now it is argued in the English 
Parliament, now it is insisted by the Queen of England, that the 
fighting must go on in South Africa until the two Republics in 
South Africa are destroyed. The same argument is heard here. 
Fighting must go on to the grim end, until these men struggling 
for freedom are all killed or lay down their arms and surrender, 
and then we will determine, without their being consulted, what 
shall be done with what is left. 

Against this, Mr. President, I protest. I believe that it is an 
attack upon our institutions, a reversal of the history of this Gov- 
ernment, and an abandonment of those doctrines which we have 
held so dear through all the years of our existence as a nation. 

4028 



10 

Mr. JONES of Arkansas. Mr. President, the Senator from Wis- 
consin [Mr. Spooner] a few moments ago read what I understood 
to be a letter from General Lawton. I do not know where the 
letter came from, when it was written, or to whom; I do not know 
whether to the Senator or not. 

Mr. SPOONER. It was not written to me. 

Mr. JONES of Arkansas. I take it the letter was written by- 
General Lawton, and I very heartily concixr in the wish expressed 
by him in the beginning of that letter, when he said, as I remem- 
ber it now, " Would to God that the whole truth there could be 
known." 

The Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. Lodge] stated that the 
greatest desire of the public officers in this country was to have 
the facts understood. Mr. President, I submit, without any tem- 
per and without any feeling, that we can not fail to have faith in 
the intelligence of the people of this country. I believe that the 
wish expressed by General Lawton is a wise one, and the desire 
expressed by the Senator from Massachusetts for the circulation 
of the truth here is just what ought to be our rule of conduct. I 
believe the whole truth ought to be known. 

I think the most unfortunate thing in connection with this 
whole difficalty was when the first resolutions of inquiry were of- 
fered here that without any moment of consideration, without a 
solitary syllable of time for thought, motions were made to lay 
them on the table, thus manifesting an intention to cut off debate, 
to suppress facts, to keep information away from Senators and 
from the people of the United States. 

It has been the practice here for a great many years when emi- 
nent men give expression to sentiments touching public affairs 
that, on the request of a Senator, a document shall be printed 
giving wbat they may have said or written and that it shall ap- 
pear in the Record. 

Mr. ALDRICH. It is a very recent practice. 

Mr. JONES of Arkansas. It has been done again, again, and 
again, and without protest, ever since I have been in this body. I 
can name instances which I think will show the printing of such 
papers by the hundreds, if not by the thousands. 

Mr. ALLISON. Only within very recent years. It is a custom 
that has grown up here within the last two or three years. 

Mr. TELLER. Longer than that. 

Mr. ALLISON. I ask the Senator to cite the printing of docu- 
ments prior to three or four years ago. 

Mr. TELLER. It commenced longer ago than that. 

I do not know what is in the paper the Senator from South Da- 
kota asked to have printed. If it is the truth, we ought not to be 
afraid of it. I have sufficient faith in the intelligence of the 
American people to believe that the printing of statements that 
are not true when they are confronted by the truth, as they can 
be and will be, will do no harm. On the contrary, the printing of 
a statement that is not the truth, coming from Aguinaldo, would 
recoil upon him and hurt him more than the refusal here to print 
a statement he has made. 

Now, what the facts are I do not know, but I do believe we ought 
to have faith enough in the intelligence of the American people to 
believe that when they understand the whole case, wlien they have 
heard both sides of it, without any attempt to suppress a full state- 

4038 



11 

ment on both sides, there will be no shadow of a doubt that they 
will arrive at a correct conclusion. I am astonished to find gen- 
tlemen on the other side who seem to be moved by a different con- 
viction. Now I will listen to what the Senator from Rhode Island 
has to say. 

Mr. ALDRICH. I simply intended to interject into the Senator's 
speech the statement that I did not object to Governor Boutwell 
making a speech or circulating it at his own expense wherever he 
pleased; I do not object to the national Democratic committee or 
its chairman printing that speech and circulating it as their own 
wherever they please; but 1 do object to the custom of printing 
political speeches by the Government of the United States and at 
its expense for circulation as political documents. 

Mr. JONES of Arkansas. The small number of four or five 
hundred documents which would be ijrintedbyorderof the Senate 
is a matter of too small moment to excite the Senator from Rhode 
Island to this extent. 

Mr. ALDRICH. That is quite true; but the Senator does not 
want to stop there. He wants to send that speech by the thou- 
sands and hundreds of thousands throughout the United^States as 
a political document at the expense of the United States and save 
the money of the national Democratic committee. 

Mr. JONES of Arkansas, Whatever printing of that document 
would have to be done beyond the few hundred printed for the 
use of the Senate would have to be done at the expense of the men 
who wanted to circulate it, 

Mr, ALDRICH. But there is the postage. There would be 
thousands and tens of thousands of dollars expended by the United 
States Government in circulating the political speeches of an ex- 
governor. 

Mr. JONES of Arkansas. The Post-Office Department was 
intended to be a public convenience. 

Mr. ALDRICH. Not in that waJ^ 

Mr. TILLMAN. Your party does it. 

Mr. JONES of Arkansas. We understand by newspaper re- 
ports that there has been the most rigid censorship of the news 
allowed to come from Manila. If things can be found out which 
affect the public interest, and if you gentlemen believe you are 
right, you should have no fear of the public knowing it all. You 
. can only fear the truth. It is not falsehood you fear, because you 
A know perfectly well that the intelligence of the American people 
can be relied on not to be misled or duped or wheedled by misrep- 
resentation. You have the opportunity. The officers are all on 
your side. They know all the facts. They can search the records. 
You can bring out everything to expose the falsity of anything 
that may be printed. 

It is not from any partisan sense that I speak, but I do believe 
that there has been manifested in the Senate a desire to prevent 
the full truth from being known. I believe it as honestly as I be- 
lieve my soul is my own, and believing that, I have no doubt there 
are thousands of other American people who believe the same 
thing. 

Now, if you want the truth told, as General Lawton suggested 
and as the Senator from Massachusetts says the public oiScers 
want, let it be told. When a Senator comes here and desires to 
have printed a document which he believes will add to the sum of 
knowledge of the country on this subject, let it be printed; and if 
4028 



12 

he cliooses to go to tlie expense of having it printed for distribu- 
tion, he ought to be allowed to do it. It does seem to me, without 
any feeling or temper, that the reasonable course is to allow this 
practice to go on as it has gone on. 

Mr. SEWELL. Mr. President, I do not know anything practi- 
cally about the Boer situation, and I do not wish to take part in 
its discussion, but I do know something about our own relations 
to the Philippines. I was not in favor of the Philippine acquisi- 
tion. I stated emphatically that the islands had a population of 
from eight to ten million people, a third of whom were civilized, 
the balance savages and pirates, and that as it took over a hundred 
years to control the remnant of the American Indians, it was a 
problem as to how long it would take us to civilize the population 
of the Philippines. Those were my own opinions; but my duty 
as a citizen of the United States is above my personal opinions. 
As soon as the treaty of Paris was concluded and ratified in this 
body, I sank all that I thought on this subject, I saw the flag 
attacked. I, as an American citizen, would like to have been there. 
In that attack on our flag my own personal opinion vanished, and 
with me it was the country and the flag, right or wrong. 

I have followed the fortunes of that flag through all this con- 
troversy in the Philippines. I have a gallant son who was on the 
staff of Lawton and who went with him and received him with 
his death woiind on the field, and I naturally have sympathy with 
him and with the officers of our Army./ I deprecate beyond meas- 
nre the action of the Senator from South Dakota. I should say 
that hej83 traitor to his country under the circumstances. The 
idea of bringing in here a paper by the ^eeli-lrMtfii' pf-Manila,the 
fellow who sold himself out to the Spaniards and now wants to 
sell himself to us, and defending it and wanting it to be published 
at the expense of the Congress of the United States, is to me out- 
rageous in, the extreme, beyond measure. That a man clothed 
with the dignity of a Senatorship of the United States, the repre- 
sentative of a sovereign State, should propose here that the man 
who is in opposition to us, who has carried on the war, should 
have this as a forum to advocate his own opinions, to be dissemi- 
nated at large to the people of the United States at the expense of 
the Congress of the United States, is monstrous in the extreme. 

Mr. President, the body of the distinguished Lawton, a personal 
friend of mine, as gallant a soldier as ever lived, arrived in San 
Francisco yesterday. The remains will be buried here in a few 
days. That distinguished gentleman and fine soldier, who was 
alM'ays at the front, stated to me that the war was continued by 
the men who had not accepted the situation as 1 had, notably Mr. 
Pettigrew, from South Dakota. The life of Lawton is as much 
chargeable to him to-day as it is to the bullet of the Filipino. 

Mr. HAW LEY. Mr. "President, I shall say what it seems to me 
it is my duty to say, and I shall say it as briefly as I can. 

This man Aguiualdo has been exhibited before the world as an 
embezzler and a scoundrel. He is making a wholly unnecessary 
war, an unjustifiable war, against the people that delivered him 
and his people from Spanish control. He knows perfectly well 
that it is the intention and promise of tlie L^nited States, practically, 
as time shall justify it, after peace shall have been restored, to lead 
them in the path of self-government, beginning with the humblest 
beginnings, in establishing municipalities, in encouraging internal 
improvements and education and religious institutions. He knows 
4Q23 



13 

all that well. He has only to stop fighting in order to have his 
people come tinder the guardianship and generous aid of a great 
nation of 75,000,000 people. 

Now, he publishes this document. The Senator from South 
Dakota wants it published. It is published already. It is open 
to any of the gentlemen who like that sort of thing to subscribe a 
few thousand dollars to circulate it everywhere. But suppose it 
goes into Manila and is thought a good thing to spread among the 
soldiers of the United States, what is the inevitable effect of it? 
To discourage the soldiers, to encourage desertion; and every- 
where else it goes the inevitable effect is to discourage enlistment. 
Is not this to aid and comfort the enemies of the country? It is 
done deliberately, with a clear knowledge of what will be the 
result of the action; and the law says that a man shall be respon- 
sible for that which is the inevitable effect of what his action is. 
If lie fires a loaded gun down a crowded street he is supposed by 
the law to intend miirder. 

I think the men who wish to circulate this document are to be 
responsible for some of the blood that is shed, and that, I am sorry 
to say, will have to be shed, before peace has been established 
there. 

Another observation, and perhaps I will quit. 

The Senator from South Dakota does not, like a fair-minded 
man, propose to publish with the Aguinaldo statement the letter 
of Admiral Dewey, because that would stamp Aguinaldo as a liar, 
y as we know he is. His friend is a liar, an embezzler, a thorough- 
going scoundrel. He stands by him, and Aguinaldo doubtless 
considers the Senator his particular friend, and will take good 
care to publish his remarks among all his so-called constituents, 
among his troops. And yet the Senator from South Dakota poses 
as a friend of his country! 

Mr. PETTIGREW. Mr. President, I do not care to reply to 
the personal attack upon me, nor to the charge that I am a traitor 
to my country. I yield to no man in my devotion to my country 
and my fiag. I am jealous of her honor, and I believe that her 
honor can only be saved from stain by a reversal of the policy into 
which this Administration has led us. I believe that only by pro- 
testing against the violation of our pledges and against the over- 
throw of all the principles upon which this Government is founded, 
by insisting upon returning to the doctrines of the fathers, to the 
principles of the Declaration of Independence — that governments 
must derive their just powers only from the consent of the gov- 
erned — can we save our flag from stain and country from dishonor. 

That is as much of a reply as I care to make to the insinuations 
of the Senator from Connecticut [Mr. Hawley] or the statement 
of the Senator from New Jersey | Mr. Sewell] . 

Now, with regard to Aguinaldo, they charge that I am defend- 
ing a forger and a bribe taker and a scoundrel upon this floor. I 
Will simply read from the record sent to us by the President upon 
that subject. I will read from Document 62, from the official re- 
ports by our officers in Luzon, and we will see whether the state- 
ment is sustained by the facts. 

Last year the President of the United States in sending the 
Spanish treaty to this body accompanied it with a document which 
contained the reports of our consuls in the East and our officers 
in Luzon. It is presumed that he knew the contents of the 
document, that he was not ignorant of the records of his own de- 



/^ 



u 

partment. Yet October 13, 1899, the President, at Fargo, in North 
Dakota, said: 

The leader of the insurgent forces says to the American Government, 
"You can have peace if you give lis independence." Peace for independence! 
He had another price than tliat for peace once before, but tlie United States 
pays no gold for peace. We never gave a bribe for peace in all our history, 
and we never will. 

Wherever that standard is raised, it stands for liberty, for civilization, 
and humanity. 

The President thus charges that Aguinaldo sold ont to Spain, 
reiterating a charge that had been proven false by the repeated 
statements of his officer; repeating a charge that was conclusively 
proven tintrue by the records of the Department of State. 

The charge is now made by the chairman of the Committee on 
Military Affairs of this body [Mr. Hawley] , the Senator from 
Connecticut, that Aguinaldo sold otit to Spain. In Document 
No. 62, transmitted to us by the President, on pages 380 and 381, 
General Merritt says: 

There are a number of Filipinos whom I have met, among them General 
Aguinaldo and a few of his leaders, whom I believe thoroughly trustworthy 
and fully capable of self-government. * * * Aguinaldo, honest, sincere, 
and poor; not well educated, but a natural leader of men, with considerable 
shrewdness and ability, highly respected by all. 

In a memorandum which General Greene presented to the peace 
conference at Paris he says: 

In August, 1896, an insurrection broke out in Cavite under the leadership 
of Emilio Aguinaldo, and soon spread to other pi-ovinces on both sides of 
Manila. It continued with varying successes on both sides, and the trial and 
execution of numerous insurgents, until December, 1897, when the governor- 
general, Prime de Revera, entered into written agreement with Aguinaldo, 
the substance of the document which is in the possession of Senor Felipe 
Agoncilla, who accompanied me to Washington. 

In brief, it required that AgQuciUa and the other insurgent leaders should 
leave the country, the Government agreeing to pay them $800,000 in silver 
and promiang to introduce numerous reforms, including representation lin 
the Spanish Cortes, freedom of the press, general amnesty for all insurgents, 
and the exxiulsion or secularization of the monastic orders. 

Aguinaldo and his associates went to Hongkong and Singapore. A por- 
tion of the money, §400,000, was deposited in banks at Hongkong, and a law- 
suit soon arose between Aguinaldo and one of his subordinate chiefs named 
Artacho, which is interesting on account of the very honorable position taken 
by Aguinaldo. 

' ' On account of the very honorable position taken by Aguinaldo. " 

Artacho sued for a division of the money among the insurgents according 
to rank. Aguinaldo claimed that the money was a trust fund, and was to re- 
naain on deposit until it was seen whether the Spaniards would carry out their 
promised reforms, and if they failed to do so, it was to be used to defray the 
expenses of anew insurrection. The suit was settled out of court by paying 
Artacho $5,000. 

No steps have been taken to introduce the reforms, more than 2,000 insur- 
gents, who have been deported to Fernando Po and other places, are still in 
confinement, and Aguinaldo is now using the money to carry on the operations 
of the present insurrection. 

This was written August 30, 1898. He took that money and 
used it as our ally to fight Spain, to buy guns and ammunition to 
carry on the contest against the common enemy; and yet he is 
charged with being a bribe taker and a scoundrel. 

Oscar F. Williams, our consul at Manila, writes to Mr. Day, 
the Secretary of State, May 35, 1898, on page 328 of Document 62: 

To-day I executed a power of attorney whereby General Aguinaldo re- 
leased to his attorneys in fact $400,000 now in bank in Hongkong, so that 
money therefrom can pay for 3,000 stand of arms bought there, and ex- 
pected hero to-morrow. 

• Mr. Wildman, our consul at Hongkong, reports to Assistant 

4028 



15 

Secretary Moore exactly the same story, on pages 336 and 337, in 
Document No. 62. I will not read it, because it is long, but 1 will 
insert it, if there is permission, in my remarks. 
The matter referred to is as follows: 

^' I have lived among the Malays of the Straits Settlements and have been 
•^ an honored guest of the different sultanates. I have watched their system 
of government and have admired their intelligence, and I rank them high 
among the semicivilized nations of the earth. The natives of the Philippine 
Islands belong to the Malay race, and while there are very few pure Malays 
among their leaders, 1 think their stock has rather been improved than de- 
based by admixture. I consider the forty or fifty Philippine leaders, with 
whose fortunes I have been very closely connected, both the superiors of the 
Malays and the Cubans. Aguinaldo, Agoncilla, and Sandico are all men who 
would all be leaders in their separate departments in any country, while 
araong the wealthy Manila men who live in Hongkong and who are spending 
their money liberally for the overthrow of the Spaniards and the annexation 
to the United States, men like the Cortes family and the Basa family, would 
hold their own among bankers and lawyers anywhere. 

* :S * * S! * * 

There has been a systematic attempt to blacken the name of Aguinaldo 
and his cabinet on account of the questionable terms of their surrender to 
Spanish forces a year ago this month. It has been said that they sold their 
country for gold, but this has been conclusivel y dispro ved, not only by their 
own statements but by the speech of the late Goverhor-General Rivera in 
the Spanish Senate June 11, 1898. He said that Aguinaldo iindertook to sub- 
mit if the Spanish Government would give a certain siim to the widows and 
orphans of the insurgents. He then admits that only a tenth part of this sum 
was ever given to Aguinaldo, and that the other promises made he did not 
find it expedient to keep. 

I was in Hongkong September, 1897, when Aguinaldo and his leaders ar- 
rived under contract with the Spanish Government. They waited until the 
1st of November for the payment of the promised money and the f uliillment 
of the promised reforms. Only $400,000, Mexican, was ever placed to their 
credit in the banks, and on the 3d of November Mr. F. Agoncilla, late 
minister of foreign affairs in Aguinaldo's cabinet, called upon me and made 
. a proposal, which I transmitted to the State Department in my dispatch No. 
19, dated iTovember 3, 1897. In reply the State Department instructed me 
"to courteously decline to communicate with the Department further re- 
garding the alleged mission." I obeyed these instructions to the letter until 
the breaking out of the war, when, after consultation with Admiral Dewey, I 
received a delegation from the insurgent junta, and they bound themselves 
to obey all laws of civilized warfare and to place themselves absolutely under 
the orders of Admiral Dewey if they were permitted to return to Manila. 
At this time their president, Aguinaldo, was in Singapore negotiating through 
Consul-General Pratt with Admiral Dewey for his return. 

On page 347 of Document No. 62 Mr. Pratt, our consul at Singa- 
/ pore, June 2, 1898, makes the following statement to Mr. Day: 

No close observer of what had transpired in the Philippines during the 
past few years could have failed to recognize that General Aguinaldo enjoyed 
above all others the confidence of the Filipino insurgents and the respect 
alike of Spaniards and foreigners in the islands, all of whom vouch for his 
high sense of justice and honor. 

Mr. Schurman, in his Chicago interview (and this is the only 
atithority I will read which is not vouched for by official docu- 
ments) August 2u, 1899, said: 

[President Schurman, Chicago interview, August 20, 1899.] 

General Aguinaldo is believed on the island to be honest, and I think that 
he is acting honestly in money matters, but whether from moral or political 
reasons I would not say. — Oriental American, page 99. 

The fact of the matter is that he tried to bribe the insiirgents, as 
near as we can ascertain, and failed; they would not take gold for 
peace. 

Now, I should like to ask the imperialists in this body what they 

think of a President who will go about the country sajnng that 

Aguinaldo had another price for peace, in the face of the official 

documents from his own officers in the State Department, where 

4028 



16 



they declare that he acted with the highest sense of honor, that 
he took no bribe, but, on the contrary, deposited the money, and 
used it, when Spain failed to carry out her promises, to help us 
fight the Spanish forces? 

What do you think of a President that will state that the United 
States never did give gold for peace, and never will, and then ap- 
prove of the treaty with the Sultan of Sulu, which provides that 
we shall pay to the Sultan $350 per month and to his subchiefs a 
sum which in all amounts to $9,200 per year? In view of all these 
facts, of what future value is any statement the President may 
make upon this subject? Mr. President, I can not contemplate 
the fact without great sorrow that a man can occupy so high a 
position as that of President of the United States and yet disgrace 
that great office by repeated falsehoods — falsehoods proven so by 
the record of his own officers sent to us. 



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